The Very Hungry Caterpillar - DIY Interactive Book

A while back, I picked up a sticker book version of The Very Hungry Caterpillar and then completely forgot about until I found it last week. Since a single stickerbook doesn't last very long in classroom of preschoolers, I made it into reusable interactive book - just like this Interactive Farm Book that I made last year!

Materials: 
Stickerbook
Cardstock paper
Laminator & Laminating Sheets OR self-adhesive laminating film
Velcro w/ adhesive

How To: 
1. Carefully take the stickerbook apart at the binding - Before starting, examine how the book is put together; you may only need to remove a couple of staples from some books. Other books are bound more securely and require a sharp utility knife or heavy duty paper cutter. However you deconstruct your book, just remember how it all goes back together!

2. Remove stickers & adhere to cardstock paper, then cut individual stickers out leaving a small boarder. I left more border on the smallest stickers to make them easier to pick up and manipulate.

3. Laminate each page of the sticker book & all of the cut out stickers. Leave some space around the stickers so that another border can be included, ensuring that each sticker is completely sealed in the laminate. If you do not have access to a laminator, you can use self-adhesive laminating film or even packaging tape.

4. Add Velcro to the inside of the book & the back of the stickers.

5. Finally.... you're ready to read & play with your new interactive book!

Tips & Tricks: 

• This project works best with stickerbooks that have larger stickers. 
• If using a book with small stickers, leave extra laminate border & use poster putty for adhesive instead of Velcro. 

In my classroom, we use this book in addition to the picture book to work on expressive & receptive vocabulary, comprehension, retelling and early math concepts. I really love this kind of interactive book for kids who aren't especially interested in reading - it provides a new, exciting & hands on way to experience books for children who don't like reading!

Thanks for Thanksgiving...

Here are a few of the Thanksgiving activities and crafts we've been working on... I just haven't had time to get them all posted! The following activities are heavy on receptive and expressive language practice!

Last week, we learned about letter T. Here's our Letter T turkeys...

I had my classroom assistant pre-cut all the pieces for this craft. The children practiced following directions with specific shape, color and location vocabulary concepts. Before we got started, I introduced all the pieces and named them by shape, color and which part of the turkey each piece would be. I verbally reviewed the steps involved and layed the pieces together on my page for my students to see. Then, my students helped to tell me the directions. When they got stuck, I gave the direction and had them listen carefully to choose the pieces - the brown half circle vs. the brown circle etc.

We read the book "Today is Monday" by Eric Carle and sang the book. I found this great little write-on version with a dry erase marker at a local discount store. I asked each child to name a food as we read and I drew a picture of the food and wrote the words while we read.

We also played the "Today is Monday" game - another item I picked up somewhere for cheap! Although the game is for ages 3+ it did seem to work better with my 4 year old students.

It lent itself to both expressive and receptive language practice. My assistant and I modeled using whole sentences when the children drew a card from the pool "I got spaghetti." "I picked a chicken." I also asked the children questions about the food items, "Do you like meatballs with your spaghetti?" And when it was my turn to choose a card, I gave the students clues about my card before showing them, "I picked something that is a vegetable, it is long and green, and the porcupine ate it on Monday. What did I choose." We also talked about whose turn it was - "My turn." and "Your turn." When we got down the end of the game, where players only needed one or two items, we talked about the concepts of 'sharing' and 'giving' game pieces that players didn't need.

Next week at school, we'll be wrapping up Thanksgiving as we head into a 5 day break... then onto Winter and Holiday themes!

Peek @ the Week

I've been so busy lately that I haven't had much time to post the last two weeks... here's a quick peek at what we've been up to this week!

We've been reading books about food, fall and family in preparation for Thanksgiving! Here's our bookshelf this week:

We've focused heavily on the books "Feast for 10" by Cathryn Falwell and "Today is Monday" by Eric Carle.

We're working on a take home book based on "Feast for 10" .... here's our artwork so far - 2 pumpkins, 3 chickens, 6 bunches of greens and 7 pickles... 

Our sensory bin the week has a variety of beans, play food, pots, pans, funnels, spoons etc.

Here's one of our morning work activities - bean sorting.

I introduced some light play using an overhead projector with a handful of translucent plastic leaves, leaf shaped sequins (table scatter decor from the craft store) and plastic letter tiles.

And we learned about letter 'L' for leaves since the leaves are still turning colors and falling - Here's our Rainbow writing letter 'L' with smashed up leaves sprinkled over glue. Simple but fun!

That's all for now... what are you up to this week?